A mas­ter class of 27 lessons, drawn from 27 diverse nar­ra­tives, for nov­el­ists, sto­ry­tellers, film­mak­ers, graph­ic design­ers, and more. Author Daniel Joshua Rubin unlocks the secrets of what makes a sto­ry work, and then shows how to under­stand and use these prin­ci­ples in your own writ­ing. The result is an invalu­able resource offer­ing price­less advice like esca­late risk, with an exam­ple from Pulp Fic­tion. Write char­ac­ters to the top of their intel­li­gence, from the Eminem song ​“Stan.” Earn trans­for­ma­tions, from Ali­son Bechdel’s Fun Home. Attack your theme, from The Broth­ers Kara­ma­zov. Insight­ful, encour­ag­ing, filled with atti­tude, and, as Book­list puts it, per­fect for any writer look­ing to ensure their sto­ries oper­ate and res­onate at the top of their poten­tial, this book gives con­tem­po­rary sto­ry­tellers of all kinds a life­line of inspi­ra­tion and relat­able instruction.